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>> This frittata might not whet your appetite but it's Amazon's latest foray into the food industry. As the online shopping giant explores new technologies to bring ready to eat meals to its customers that are more nutritious than processed foods and have a longer shelf life. Amazon is looking into selling food made with microwave assisted thermos sterilization technology, or MATS for short.

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Which involves placing food in hot pressurized water, and cooking it with microwaves for several minutes. Reuters's correspondent, Jeffrey Dastin.>> Amazon is evaluating this new food technology that promises food that's stable on a shelf for a year. You don't have to refrigerate it. But it is much more nutritious and tastes much better than conventionally processed food.

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>> MATS technology grew out of interest from the U.S. Military more than a decade ago to improve the quality of MREs for soldiers in combat. Amazon stumbled upon the idea at the Paris food trade show last year. And soon after started working with 915 Labs in Denver which is commercializing the technology.

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The dishes would be cheaper to deliver because they do not require refrigeration. And, if popular, they would put Amazon at the forefront of changes to the food industry.>> Amazon is in a phase of experimentation to figure out how it's going to win in the $700 billion US grocery market.

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It plans to buy Whole Foods right now. It also is experimenting with a checkout-free grocery store called Amazon Go, in Seattle. It's even just filed a trademark application for a meal-kit service. So MATS is just another way that it potentially could be at the cutting edge of the food industry.

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It could be ahead of others.>> Consumers should not expect to see MATS dishes on Amazon, at least until 2018. 915 labs says the food is still pending FDA approval.